Winter Reminiscing: Times Change 2
by 200trackrunner
Summary: Set in the winter following the events of Times Change. Phineas and Isabella are together now and the gang is back in Danville. Will the return to their old, adventurous ways? Will the holidays be too much for Phineas and Isabella's relationship?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Pale grey clouds blocked out the sun on the crisp December afternoon. The rays of light that managed to force their way through the barrier played beautifully off the sun. On a rock in Danville Park, Django Brown painted the scene, his brush strokes careful and deliberate. Downtown, a man in a white pharmacist's jacket decorated the exterior of his skyscraper with festive lights. Even though he hated the holidays, tradition, and an ordinance from his brother, kept him trimming his beautiful purple tower in red and green lights. Inside the building, Buford asked each tenant what holiday they celebrated, giving a menorah to those who answered Hanukah, a Christmas tree or angel to those who responded Christmas, and a snowflake to those who celebrated both or neither. Winter had rolled in to Danville in typical fashion.

Of course, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro would probably have to disagree with the typical fashion. While everyone else in Danville was buying gifts for husbands and wives and family that they'd had for years, this year she had a boyfriend to buy a gift for. Not just any boyfriend either, Phineas Flynn. She had always dreamed of dating Phineas, even marrying him. Unfortunately, she never thought of anything but the romance and family life. Buying him gifts seemed impossible. One, Phineas was still almost always content , knowing what he actually wanted was almost impossible. Two, the boy could make anything and everything. Since she could remember, Phineas had created technologies that didn't even exist yet. He had built the tallest building in the world before entering high school! Too make matters worse, everyone around her was successfully getting gifts for their significant other. Candace had called her to talk about the new effects pedal she had just gotten for Jeremy. Emily showed her a golden pocket watch she had bought Ferb. She was the only one without a gift.

Phineas only made matters worse with his idea of hand making gifts for each other. He made it seem easy, and for him this was true. It would have been easy for her too if she didn't have to live up to the high standards of Phineas. If it were any other boy, she could have made him a jacket with her initials embroidered on the inside and his on the outside pocket or something cheese like that. No with Phineas. He built two planes that could travel around the world in a single day. He constructed a tree house in the middle of a state park that put even the most modern houses to shame. He had even made the tallest building in the world inside his own backyard! Sure, she had helped with the last one but he still planned out everything. How could she compete with the boy who was getting a master's degree in engineering in his junior year of college? And so, Isabella continued her walk through Downtown Danville, trying to get some gift ideas.

. . .

Isabella was going holiday shopping that day, maybe for her mother. That meant that Phineas had the entire day create the best snowball fight ever with Ferb, Balijeet, and Buford, and he intended on making this the most epic battle Danville had ever seen. At the moment, Phineas and Ferb were still in their room, a divider running down the middle so that neither could see what the other was constructing. From over the gap, Ferb could see the blue light of a welding torch illuminating Phineas's side of the room. The insane amount of privacy was Phineas's idea.

Phineas had set the rules for the snowball fight earlier that morning, calling Balijeet and Buford to inform them as well. The first was that it was a free for all, no teams whatsoever, although temporary alliances were allowed. Second was that weapons, tools, and armor were all permitted. The weapons just needed to be specifically for launching snowballs, much to Buford's dismay. Third: no one was to share their strategy with their opponents, explaining the barrier that ran the entire width and most of the height of the boys' room. The final rule was the players were given a set number of points, points were lost when the player got hit and gained when the player hit another. Points would be evenly redistributed when a player was out to ensure that the match would at least have an end. The match was to begin at twelve noon at Danville Park, which was in ten minutes according to Ferb's watch. Ferb put down his screw driver after making that last few adjustments to his creation, placed it in his backpack, and approached the barrier. Ferb knocked on the cool metal to signal he was ready to leave, and the blue light instantly faded. The divider folded into the wall, revealing a smiling Phineas on the other side. "You ready to go?" The young redhead asked and Ferb responded with a thumbs up as they walked out of the room and began their journey to the park.

Phineas and Ferb walked to the park since the walk only took about six or seven minutes and they wanted appreciate the decorations outside of houses, the light up snowflakes and candy canes strung up on the street lights. Buford and Balijeet were already at the park when the two arrived. Buford was dressed in dark tan snow pants and a thick, black winter coat. Balijeet dawned a puffy, brown suit that covered him from head to toe making him resemble an Eskimo. "So guys," Phineas began, "did you bring your weapons?"

"Sure did!" Buford announced as he pulled a slingshot and a piece of fabric with what appeared to pocket at the end.

"I brought mine as well." Balijeet said as he pulled out an Airzooka .

Ferb simply pulled a string on his backpack, causing the object he had placed in it earlier to unfold. As it did black metal covered his arms and legs. A chest plate began to form as it folded over his torso. Finally, a yellow face mask shielded Ferb's eyes.

"A modified version of The Beak costume? Very nice." Phineas conceded.

It was then that Balijeet noticed that Phineas was his normal tan shorts and orange striped golf shirt. "Phineas, how can you be wearing such clothing in this weather? You will surely freeze very shortly." He questioned.

"Because, Balijeet, I'm wearing a new type of temperature controlling clothing. This is just the prototype so it's currently just capable of producing heat when the temperatures are cold via environmental sensory chips dispersed throughout the clothing. Of course these have a few features that the finished products won't have." Phineas explained. He then turned the lowest button on his shirt and two shotgun like weapons sprouted from his arm. The barrels were attached to container that was currently empty by a wide, rubber tube.

Buford and Balijeet looked at their weapons and then at Phineas and Ferb. Suddenly they didn't feel so well prepared for their fight. An alarm went off on Buford's watch, twelve o'clock had arrived. The time was then replaced by the number one hundred. The same thing happened to both Balijeet and Phineas's watches. Ferb's points appeared in the upper right hand corner of the HUD in his suits visor followed by each the other contender's scores. Buford and Balijeet ran in separate directions, each wanting to get as far away from the step brothers as possible. Ferb took to the skies to get a bird's eye view of the park. Phineas simply stood still and turned the button above the one he had turned earlier causing him to hover slightly over the snow, he had turned his shoes into air skates. He then turned the third and final button which made him vanish from sight. The battle had begun.

Buford only needed to worry about two things; avoiding Ferb and that suit of his, and tracking down Balijeet. He knew that if he could let Phineas and his guns take on Ferb he might be able to take out Balijeet in peace and heighten his chances of winning the match. He ran for about a hundred feet and jumped, landing in a ditch that he had seen little kids building the day before. Backing into the tunnel that they had dug out, probably leading to some kind of room or fort, he hid his body and waited. A brown hood entered his field of vision, the person in it frantically looking left and right as if on the run from a predator. Quietly, Buford shuffled out of the tunnel and into the ditch, making sure to land on the powdery snow so that he could hide the sound. He reached above the ditch and made a snowball out of the firmer snow outside. Putting it in his sling, Buford began to spin his wrist causing the sling to twirl in a circle. Once he reached a satisfactory speed, he stopped spinning his wrist and flung it forward launching the projectile at his prey causing it to fall. Buford's watch glowed green as he gained ten points . Seeing his opportunity, Buford pulled his slingshot from his pocket. Buford then made ten miniature snowballs and launched them from his slingshot, all but one making contact with their intended target, the other exploded oddly in mid air. His watch blinked green repeatedly as his points racked up. In just minutes he had gone from one hundred to two hundred ten points. Seeing that his job was done, Buford ran back to the tunnel, back to safety. Once back he noticed that his points had reset back to one hundred, signifying the beginning of the next round.

Phineas was shocked that Ferb had reconstructed the Beak but couldn't be more pleased. After all, the suit had been their first and, up until now, only battle capable device. Luckily, Phineas was at a pretty decent advantage because he knew the suits capabilities. It had the ability to shot lasers, or snowballs in the instance, it could fly, it could survive extreme conditions, it could even dance! In fact the only weakness it had was, while it improved speed, strength, and all the senses, it didn't take eyesight outside the normal color spectrum. This meant that Phineas couldn't be tracked by Ferb because his was invisible, and covering his tracks by hovering. Phineas skated his way through the park when he came across a knocked over Balijeet. Phineas looked around. Seeing nobody around he figured that the young Indian must have tripped over his own two feet. Phineas was about to pull the trigger on his weapon when he noticed the light on Balijeet's watch go back to normal, meaning that Balijeet had been eliminated. Then, a red flashing caught his eye he had been hit. Phineas looked around again and still saw nothing. Nothing, except a small, hardly noticeable white spot on his shirt where it should have been see through. He had been hit. Luckily, the hit was almost inconsequential because his watch reset. A new round had begun.

Ferb patrolled the skies, wanting to avoid the fighting because he knew that Buford would start by hunting Balijeet. His hypothesis was correct, except he hadn't expected to see Phineas lose any points that early. The HUD in his helmet showed that Phineas had been hit one time before the watch communication system had time to end the round. Unfortunately the round ended before Buford, or Ferb had a chance to capitalize. And if Buford hadn't capitalized at least a little bit, it meant that Phineas must be camouflaged somehow. This made things a little more interesting for Ferb. Ferb started getting closer to ground level, making sure that he could get a straight shot if he found anyone. He cruised towards the center of the park, attracting a lot of attention from below as people started at the spectacle above, when he felt something hit him from above. No, not hit but drop on him from above. Then he saw his points drop as his brother's went up. Ferb launched below in hopes of hitting someone below, wasting precious ammo. Another hit from the left this time. Phineas was somewhere below him. But where? There was no sign of him, no tracks and no sight. To make matters worse the sun was blocked off making it impossible for Ferb to see shadows on the ground from this height. Two shots hit Ferb from directly below. Only six shots left until he was out if he didn't do something soon.

Phineas was having the time of his life. Sure, Ferb had a brilliant idea in resurrecting the past, but a superhero/survival suit is not made for snowball fights. He had already hit his mark on four shots. Both snow containers were roughly half full at the moment and so Phineas took three more shots, one with his left and two with his right. All of them found their target. Unfortunately, Ferb finally found Phineas, inadvertently since Ferb was now shooting just to stay alive. Suddenly another snowball shot over Phineas's head and made direct contact with Ferb. Knowing that Buford must be nearby, Phineas took another three shots at his brother, this time only connecting two times. Luckily for Phineas, it didn't matter, Ferb was already out. Unlucky for the young redhead, he didn't notice that they powder from Buford's shot had exposed him by not landing. Even worse was the fact that he had no clue where Buford was. Phineas turned around, seeing a ditch behind him he decided to make a break for it before the next round began so that he could clean off and hide from Buford. What Phineas wasn't prepared for was a patiently waiting Buford at the bottom of the ditch, slingshot loaded with ten small snowballs. Before the round could end, Buford released the slingshot, showering Phineas with snowballs. The battle was over, Buford had pulled an upset.

. . .

Isabella walked past the park on her way home from shopping. She hadn't gotten much at all. Just a few gifts for her friends at school, some for small trinkets for the former Fireside Girls, and some cooking utensils for her mom as a birthday gift. As she passed the entrance gate, she saw Phineas and the rest of the usual gang walking out of the park. Unbeknownst to them, Irving was hiding behind a car parked outside the park. As the flash of the stalker's camera went off, a light bulb went off in Isabella's head. She now knew what she was going to get Phineas for Christmas.

**A/N: This chapter took way longer than I thought it would, probably because it's decently long and set in a difficult season. I hope all those who read Times Change like this one as well. I'd also like to take the time to thank all those who read Times Change, well over thousand hits in November so far, which more than topped October's total. Thanks to all who favorited me and added me to your alerts list too. I really appreciate it. Read and review. All criticism gladly accepted because I really want to improve this story and know what people think about the winter setting. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The large, two story room was almost pitch black. Pitch black and silent. Black pillars of various shapes and sizes stood scattered throughout making pathways. Ramps to a second story were interspersed in two random places and one at each of the room's four corners. Near the corner ramps were small caves with a flashing light in each of them, a flashing light that must be protected at all cost. The second floor was relatively empty, a wide pathway on the walls had two feet tall walls on each side. At the halfway point of each wall on the second story a very narrow hall connected to a tower in the middle. This divided the room into four sectors. The sectors were the center of operations for the four teams, their teams color flashing on the thin neon strips on the walls and pillars providing very little light for the players to see. Phineas had brought Ferb, Isabella, and Emily to the local laser tag arcade to avoid the frigid air outside, despite Emily's pleas of being too old to play laser tag.

Isabella stood guard at the pink base, making sure that nobody, especially Phineas, could take out her teams base and the two thousand points that came along with it. Why Phineas had insisted that each of the young adults be on separate teams was beyond her. Ever since puberty, she had lost that edge young girls have over boys. No, she only lost her athletic edge. She could wrap any man around her finger now with her looks if she wanted to now. As Isabella paced back and forth, lost in thought, she saw an orange flash go by one of the windows in the wall. Normally, that would be Phineas but tonight he was on the blue team. Suddenly her vest started beep, then flashing, then finally shut down. Someone had shot her. Turning around she saw a blonde haired girl about her age twirling her gun on her right index finger.

"I believe," she began, her British accent thick as fog on a humid morning," that the American term for that would be gotcha'!"

"And to think that you were the one who didn't want to go here in the first place. What is this? The third time you've gotten me now?" Isabella asked, half in humor and half annoyed. She hadn't lost her competitive side.

"Fifth." Emily answered coolly as she pulled her trigger four times while aiming at the flashing light which went out similarly to Isabella's vest. With that she walked off.

Emily took the ramp to the second floor, hoping to sneak into the tower and snipe out her beloved before he could reach her. She ran the distance to the narrow hallway making the left turn as quickly as she could. Not noticing the blue light illuminating from atop the ten foot wall that covered the pathway. If she hadn't been giggling she might have hear the chuckle that escaped Phineas's lips as he prepared follow his next victim. Blissfully ignorant, Emily made it to the tower as and began to seek out Ferb's silhouette. She found him, sneaking out of the green base, unaware that he was being hunted from above. Emily lined up her aim, looking down each pathway for threats, and prepared.

"Sorry Ferb but I want to win this." Emily said to herself. She went to pull the trigger when her vest started flashing, the trigger locking. "Wha. . . who got me?"

"I did!" Phineas exclaimed. He revealed himself by jumping in from the canopy that covered the tower.

Emily face palmed herself. Of all people to get her, it had to be him. It wasn't that she dislike Phineas, he had become like a brother to her in the time that she had been dating Ferb. In fact, that was the exact reason that she couldn't stand losing to him. He was her little brother, even if he was a good fifty pounds heavier than her, six inches taller than her, and five months older. His immaturity made him like her little brother. "Isn't climbing up the walls against the rules?" She asked, her hand still covering her face.

"Yes, yes it is. That's why I jumped up that." He state nonchalantly. He pointed to his shoes, which he had made specifically to allow him to jump higher. Jump higher, and cheat at laser tag. Then, as quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared down the corridor he had come from the top of, shooting a member of Ferb's team on the way down before jumping over them.

Phineas made his way to the pink base expecting to see Isabella guarding the light. He was right. She stood perfectly still, as if she was disinterested, uncharacteristic of Isabella. He saw that the pink lights were lit up again, meaning enough time had passed for her gun to reactivate. Phineas smiled from ear to ear. Now he had the chance to take out Isabella. He pulled the trigger hitting a perfect shot on her shoulder, since the shoulders were worth the most points. Instead of Isabella's vest flashing before deactivating, her entire body flickered out of existence. At first Phineas was confused, until he saw a grey circle on the floor. Not just any grey circle either, his hologram projector. This could only mean one thing. Quickly he turned around, but it was too late his vest began flashing before finally going blank. In front of him stood a beaming Isabella.

"No fair. I gave that to you so that we could go to the tree house with anyone getting suspicious." He pseudo-complained as he walked up to his girlfriend and gave her a quick peck on the forehead.

"And using your shoes to skirt around the rules is?" Isabella laughed in response.

"Touché."

The lights came on as Phineas began walking out of the pink cave. The game was over. He turned back and grabbed Isabella's hand as they walked out together, meeting Ferb and Emily at the double door that led out to the lobby. In the lobby they handed in their vests and received a score card. Phineas was excited to see that he had beaten Isabella by leaps and bounds, forty -two thousand five hundred to ten thousand. The two of them had become extremely, but playfully, competitive since they started dating. What fun would dating be if they couldn't be playful? Emily had scored the least with only eight thousand points. Ferb had scored the most, a whopping fifty-six thousand.

"Ferb how did you rack up that many points? I don't think I even saw you once." Phineas questioned when they reached their respective cars as he held open his passenger side for Isabella.

"I walked around shooting bases and unskilled players." Ferb answered as he did the same for Emily in his car. When he finished answering he got in the driver's side and drove off into the night. Most likely to Emily's grandmother's house. She had moved to America seeking employment in two thousand ten when jobs in Britain were becoming scarce.

Phineas did the same thing pushing the button to activate the wings of his car as he closed the door. He turned to Isabella and smiled as he took in her beauty. "You have fun tonight?" He asked.

"Yea, I guess so. But why couldn't we have been on the same team? Then I could have at least spent a little more time with you."

"Where would the fun in that be though? Plus, it's not like we could have stuck together, we would be one huge target."

Isabella sighed, knowing that she was unable to beat his logic and proceeded to look out the window. She noticed that they were flying over top of a forest. Not only that but there was a lake in the distance. "Phineas. . . ?" she began but was interrupted when the sound of turbines lowering them.

They landed atop the roof of a building. And Phineas stepped out of the car making his way over the passenger side door to let out Isabella, offering her his hand to help her up. When both were out of the car, Phineas walked over to the tree, hand in hand with Isabella, and placed his right hand on the tree. A "ping" was heard and the two began to ascend into the tree house. When they touched the ground, all the lights turned on revealing the same grand layout Phineas had shown Isabella earlier that year. Phineas pointed Isabella towards the couch by the fire pit was he went into the kitchen to grab a match to light the wood and to dim the lights. With his endeavors accomplished, he walked over to Isabella, lit the match and threw it into the firewood and laid side by side with Isabella as the flames began to heat and illuminate the tree house.

Hours went by without the two talking much, just enjoying the other's company when a rustling noise came from where Phineas hid the remote. It made Isabella jump but Phineas just ignored it, he knew what was coming next. The sound of plastic falling on the floor followed. The TV turned on and was scrolling through the DVR. The only thing recorded on there was Perry's soaps. Phineas's eye began to twitch. "Perry, can't I ever have privacy here without having to worry about you using my TV as a way to get one over on Dad when he doesn't let you watch your shows?" Phineas's only response was and angry chatter from his monotreme pet. Knowing that their time alone was done, Phineas doused the fire and took Isabella's hand and guided her to the bedroom. The bedroom was one of the few things that had changed. Rather than the two individual beds being present, a queen sized bed now took their place. Phineas and Isabella each placed their hands in their respective drawers and pulled out the pajamas each had left there. Isabella took hers into the bathroom connect to their room while Phineas simply took off his shirt and pulled on some pajama pants. Five minutes after going in, Isabella emerged from the bathroom in a revealing silk night gown that made Phineas gawk. She walked over to the bed and pulled down the sheets, bring Phineas down with her. She put the covers back on top of them, snapping her fingers to dim the lights. A koi smile graced her lips as she brought Phineas in for a passionate kiss. Pulling away after a minute, she lay seductive kisses up his jawline, up to his ear and whispered "I love you " into his ear.

A/N: I want to thank Lil Miss Kandy Kane for the laser idea. I hope I did the chapter of Alphabet Soup that gave me the idea justice. Forgive any formatting errors in the last paragraph and the author's note, they were typed on my iPhone. I'll correct them as soon as possible. I know that there is no connection to the last chapter here but, I will connect chaps 1 & 2 next time. Sorry it was short, I did this in one night since I haven't updated in awhile. Read and review. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The sun fought to shine through as it struggled to cross the horizon, but lost to the storm clouds that hung over Danville. To cement their victory over the sun, the clouds began unleashing their powdery fury upon the town below. Atop the roof of a tree house by Lake Nose Phineas Flynn took a break from stretching as his platypus kept him company when the first snow flake touched his nose. His eyes shot open as the cold raced down his spine, snapping him out of his meditative state. From his butterfly position, Phineas stretched out his legs, folded his hands behind his head, and laid down to watch the ensuing onslaught from above. All was peaceful for the time being. A pair of eyes watched Perry and Phineas they looked to the sky and then the bird of prey swept into action. Phineas heard the sound of twigs snapping as the osprey soared in their direction by covering most of Perry with his body, leaving only his head out. The bird flew by the two, lowering its head to reveal a brown fedora on the top before bursting through trees and on the open lake. "Phew, I thought he was coming after you Perry."

Unfortunately for him, Perry knew that Agent O was looking for him. Agent O was the recon agent for all semi-aquatic and aquatic agents that occupied the top water column. If Agent O was there, it meant Monogram had been trying to reach Perry for a little while. This meant that leaving his watch at home didn't help in getting a day off from Doofenshmirtz. With a disgruntled chatter to his owner, Perry walked down into the house, to Phineas and Isabella's bedroom, jumped on the bed, walked across a sleeping Isabella's face, and finally jumped into the open drawer on Isabella's bureau. Once inside the drawer, he beat the teleporter that normally brought clothes to and from the tree house with his tail until he disappeared from view.

The musky scent of platypus wafted into the sleeping Isabella's nose, slowly but surely ripping her away from sleep's sweet embrace. Coughing, she rubbed the last bits of sleep out of her closed eyes and readied herself for the day to come. Sitting up, she looked in the mirror across the room noticing her frazzled hair, the straps of her nightgown hanging down allowing the upper parts of her breasts to be seen. All of this was due to Phineas and his nightly wrestling matches with her, and she could only wish that by wrestling she meant sex, but she didn't. Phineas was a blanket hog once sleep overtook him and nothing could deny him, not even Isabella. She had hoped that wearing her revealing outfit would have encouraged some activity to make Phineas too tired to fight her in his sleep. Instead it led to a relaxing back rub that put her to sleep and did nothing to help her cause. With one last sigh at her defeat, Isabella got out of bed, walked to the bathroom and undressed for her morning shower.

Twenty minutes later , Isabella gracefully walked out of the bedroom accompanied by a shroud of steam, silhouetting her image like Aphrodite shielding herself from mortal eyes. As the warmth of the steam was defeated by the cold winter air that trickled in from outside, Isabella couldn't have been happier that she chose to wear her sweat suit that day. She walked down the corridor that lead to the main room of the tree house, just in time to see Phineas walking in from the frigid outside. "Watcha doin'?" Isabella queried.

"Stretching," Phineas said in his usual proud tone. "How did you sleep?"

"Other than the fact that you pulled all the blankets away from me it was fine. Even if I had to share my pillow with Perry after his soaps were over."

Phineas began snickering at her answer. "He really shared a pillow with you? He must really like you then. He slapped Emily that last time she tried to sleep with him. Maybe he approves of you."

"I'm sure he does, he's only known me for most of his life. And he tried nibbling your ear last night after you pulled the blankets out from under him after he made himself a bed out of them. You lucked out because I stopped him." Isabella finished, playfully sticking her tongue out at her boyfriend in the process.

Phineas reached into his pocket and pulled out a book of matches, lighting and throwing one into the fireplace to warm up the house. After that he walked across the room and into the kitchen opening up the refrigerator. He pulled out a carton of eggs and a gallon of milk before walking over to the cabinets and pulling out pancake batter mix and some pans. Once his ingredients were assembled, Phineas began his work. He started by cracking the eggs and pouring them into the mixing bowl followed by the batter mix and water. The young man then pulled out a cooking spoon and started mixing the batter. After about five minutes, he finished stirring and poured small circles on to a pan that sat on the stove, turned it on and waited. Once he was finished making the pancakes, he brought them over on a plate to Isabella, along with syrup, powdered sugar, and an empty plate and silverware for each of them. "Since Perry left," Phineas said before putting his first bite into his mouth, "we should be able to finish this in peace."

. . .

Hours had passed since Phineas and Isabella had finished eating breakfast. Isabella was at home going through pictures of her and Phineas from years past. There were some of the two of them as little kids. A picture of the two of them at the girl's choice dance from years back caught her eye and made her laugh. Sure Phineas had completely misinterpreted what she had meant when she asked him to the dance and brought Ferb with them, but Ferb, at least, was smart enough to put two and two together and gave them plenty of space. Ferb even took the picture that she held at the moment. It was of her and Phineas sitting on a hill, watching as the shooting stars began to fall, Isabella in a pink dress and Phineas in a black suit, their hands overlapping without either of them noticing. She added it to the pile of pictures that she was going to put in the scrapbook that would become her gift to Phineas.

She finished looking through boxes of old photos and photo albums from days gone by, almost ending her trip down nostalgia lane, and began looking at the photos she decided she was going to add to her present for Phineas. Some of the pictures were of the two of them together, others were just them individually. There was a picture of Phineas at the medal stand during NCAA Championship the previous summer, his head bowed as the official placed the medal around his neck. One picture was of her and Phineas after a high school football game; he in his football equipment, a bit blood trickling down a scratch under his left eye, and she in her cheerleading uniform smiling with her arm around Phineas's shoulder.

Isabella started sorting the pictures into the order that she wanted for the scrapbook. She started with pictures of them from her childhood. The first one was a picture of her in her Fireside Girl uniform across from a picture of Phineas working on his mom's car from the time he made it into a racecar that Irving had given her. She then drew a heart around the two pictures in marker and put their names under each in gold Sharpie. The next page the picture of the two of them from the Night of the Falling Stars Girl's Choice Dance. After that was a picture of them sitting in the cafeteria in seventh grade; Phineas was making shapes out of the school food while Ferb was holding off his female admirers and she laughed at the two of them. The next picture was of Phineas and Isabella at the science fair that same school year; she had won first place with a papier-mâché volcano, beating his perpetual motion spinning top. She added a few pictures of them at middle school dances, some pictures of the two of them at the beach with their friends, and some of them doing their sports in middle school, before moving on to the pictures of the two of them in high school. The first one was of the two of them in homeroom together on the first day of freshman year, they sat directly next to each other because of their last names. The next few pictures were of them hanging out with friends at the movies or at parties and the like. The last picture was of the two of them at prom. It was taken by a professional photographer and Phineas was poised with his left arm around her waist. He was wearing a black tuxedo with a pink boutonnière to match her dress. Her strapless dress flowed to the ground and was split at the left side from her mid thigh down . If she hadn't known any better she would have thought that the two were a couple. Of course, if _he _had known better they would have been.

Isabella was down to the last page of the book when she realized that she didn't have any pictures left to put on the last page. To make matter worse, she promised Phineas that she was going to take a walk around the park with him that night at eight. . . and she only had five minutes until then. Quickly, she took off the jumpsuit from earlier that day and changed into a pair of tight jeans, a white v-neck sweater and put a brown, wool, sleeveless jacket on overtop. She added a white hat with a navy blue diamond pattern on it and matching gloves, and pulling on her brown Uggs,, made her way over to the Flynn-Fletcher residence.

She arrived at the door just as Phineas was about to open it. He was wearing jeans and a black leather jacket and a Philadelphia Eagles hat along with black cotton gloves. "Wow, talk about good timing. Good thing too, dad and Perry are starting to fight over the remote again." Phineas chuckled as he walked into the cold night air and toward Danville Park, hand-in-hand with Isabella. The two were not the only ones in Danville Park, which stayed open all day and all night thanks to the lighting that surrounded the paths. In fact the park was packed with family and couples, strolling the main path, watching the lights play off the snow. Some of the paths had strings of Christmas lights draped over them to form a tunnel. Some tunnels only lit up in stride with the people as they walked, others continuously slowed down like a waterfall or snowfall depending on the coloring, still others stayed entirely lit up in festive colors without any blinking or flashing. Snowmen made by children, or in one case, an abnormally large snow couple that Ferb and Emily had made earlier that day, garnered extra attention from folks. Phineas and Isabella walked the path to the small lake in the middle of the park, stopping at the gazebo that over looked its shores. Phineas held Isabella around her waist with his right arm. The two of them staring in awe at the sight of the lights on the bridge illuminating the ice, random glares flashing their way as young children and couples ice skated on the frozen surface.

"Excuse me," a friendly male voice said from behind the two. Slightly startled, the two turned around to face a man in his thirties holding a professional grade camera. "Sorry to scare you like that, but I was wondering if the two of you would like a picture. I mean this is a designated romantic photo spot. Plus with the way the starlight plays off your lovely hair, miss, I'd think you two would have a perfect photo.

"Sure!" Isabella said before Phineas could answer. She wrapped her right arm around Phineas's waist as she did the same to her with his left and held him close. The camera man's smile was enough to tell her that they were smiling perfectly. The camera clicked without a flash, the exposure settings allowing the camera to naturally pick up enough light, and the man showed them the photo in the rear display. After seeing the picture she smiled. "It's perfect!" She exclaimed as she took the man's card. "Come on Phineas, we should be getting home, I'm freezing."

The two of them walked through the park, taking the short cut home and talking about nothing in particular. When Phineas walked her to her door, Isabella darted up the stairs and into her room to get on the computer. She typed the website the photographer's card told her to go to and browsed through the most recent photos before finding the one of her and Phineas. She ordered it and saved it to her computer before printing it out of the photo paper slot on her printer. When the ink dried, she added it to the last page of her scrapbook. When she was done she admired her work. Taking in every detail of the leather binding with its gold out lining. On the spine was an empty she had Phineas Flynn etched in, in gold lettering. Sure, her work of art was no Phineas and Ferb invention, but she had followed the rules of her and Phineas's gift exchange policy, and thought that she had out done herself.

Putting the book away, she went over to her drawer to pull out a pair of pajamas for the night. As she pulled open the drawer, the teleporter to the tree house activated and she felt her hand grab something soft on the other side. Figuring that she had left her pajamas there, she pulled her hand out, holding something she was far from prepared for. A platypus. "Perry?" She asked to nobody in particular to which Perry responded in an annoyed chatter. " Oh you're trying to use the TV again aren't you?" She placed him down in the drawer, receiving a happy chattered from the monotreme as he disappeared from sight. "Well, goodnight Perry," Isabella said before pulling her pajamas out of a different drawer, and readying herself for bed.

**A/N: Sorry for the huge hiatus, I've been really busy since the beginning of track season. Hopefully this chapter was worth the long wait. Thanks for all the reviews and favorites this story has received in. Here's to a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone on FanFiction. And for those non-Christians, Happy Holidays. And to all the Phillies fans Merry Cliffmas, Happy Halladays!**


	4. Chapter 4

Phineas woke up earlier than usual on Christmas morning. Not because he was excited for gifts from Santa, he was too old for those, but because he was going over his last second check list for all his Christmas gifts. He had gotten Linda a new pair of earrings that functioned as Bluetooth , a charm for Candace with two communicators for keeping in touch with Jeremy, a new tool box for Ferb with infinite storage capabilities, and a stack of watercolor painting guides for Lawrence with paint that wouldn't smudge when kissed. Most importantly, he had the cards for Isabella's scavenger hunt. It'd be too simple to just give her the gift with no fun and games before hand. Taking out his iPhone, he sent a text out to everyone who was helping him out with his grand scheme.

. . .

Isabella and Vivian woke up at eight since they had nowhere in particular to be or to do on Christmas morning. Isabella descended down the stairs after straightening her hair to meet her mom in the kitchen. "Hey, Mom! Do you want to go out to breakfast today? I mean we're hardly ever home at the same time anymore and I don't have to meet with Phineas until one so I figured I'd treat."

"Oh Isa, what a wonderful idea! I'll go grab our coats." Vivian responded as a vibrating sensation came from her pocket. "Oh would you look at that, I have a text message!" Looking down at her phone she could see that it was from Phineas. She flipped her phone and read Phineas instructions to hand Isabella a note during breakfast instructing her where to go.

"Who is it Mom?" Isabella questioned. Her mom never texted, clearly visible from the fact that she still used a flip phone, so for her to receive on, particularly this early in the morning, was odd.

"Oh, it was umm," Vivian struggled to think of a lie. Phineas had known that Isabella was taking her out to breakfast and wanted to make that part of his scavenger hunt. What he didn't count on was Vivian's inability to lie. "It was someone from my work sending out a 'Merry Christmas' mass text."

"Riiight." It was obvious that Isabella only half bought what Vivian was saying.

. . .

An hour and a half later Vivian and Isabella had just finished eating their breakfast, and Vivian had yet to deliver her hint. Excusing herself from the table, Vivian headed off their waitress before she came into view of the table. "Excuse me," Vivian began. "Not to be a bother, but may I see the bill before you bring it to the table. You see, I'm supposed to have dropped off a clue to my daughter from her novio about some scavenger hunt she needs to go on before getting her gift and I was hoping to write down were she should go from here."

"Go ahead." The waitress, a short, older woman with brown, curly hair, replied in a disinterested and drone-like voice.

"Gracias!" Vivian proceeded to take the bill. On it, she wrote: _Isabella, it'd be a good idea for you to head to the front entrance to the DEI building ~a friend. _With that finished, Vivian headed to the bathroom so that she would arrive at the table after the bill arrived. When she returned Isabella was going through her money, getting just enough to leave a proper. "Mom," she said without looking up, "why did you write this on the bill?"

"I cannot tell you but you'll be pleased when you get there," Vivian sighed in defeat.

As Isabella approached the tall purple skyscraper she had been told to go to, she thought she could faintly hear a jingle, something along the lines of _Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated_. Outside the building stood Buford in his black winter coat, a black beanie covering head, with his back turned to her. As she approached, He turned around with something in his hands. "Here ya go Isabella."

Confused, Isabella took the small metal disk from him. "Thanks, I think. What is it?"

"Oh that's simple it's a. . . never mind I can't tell you that. Just go to the park and push the button when you get to the gazebo by the lake."

"Ok, well thank you then Buford."

After giving her the disk, Buford went inside the building, must likely to do business with his boss or wish him a Merry Christmas. Alone, Isabella made her way back to her car and to the park. After ten minutes of driving down almost empty streets, Isabella had arrived at the park. Still alone, she had time to appreciate the beauty of nature left undisturbed as she strolled the path. Birds chirped as the zipped back and forth in the frigid air, occasionally landing on the snowmen to rest. The trees sparkled in the little sunlight that passed through the gray cloud cover bounced off the snow that had fallen only the night before. When she neared the gazebo, excitement overtook her and all she could hear was the crunching snow beneath her feet. It seemed to echo in her ears.

Turning the final wind in the path, the gazebo finally came into view. Standing under it was a lone figure staring at the frozen pond. As she got a better look she noticed that he was wearing an Eskimo style winter coat. "Balijeet? What are you doing here? It's Christmas!"

"Simple my friend," Balijeet proclaimed, "I am here to tell you to look up before pressing the button.

Isabella did just as Balijeet said and look to the sky. What looked like a mechanical superhero, similar built when they were younger flew through the skies, releasing air writing behind him before blasting off at Mach 4. "Merry Christmas Isabella, Love Phineas," Isabella read aloud. "Wait you, mean I was sent all this way just for that? Oh, wait! The button!"

Pushing the button cause the disk to float out of her hand, spinning rapidly, a white beam coming from the center. It turned so that the beam was facing her and began to rapidly circle her body. Then, Isabella could feel herself being transported, the world around her beginning to fade before reconstructing itself around her. Finally the disk fell to the floor and she was back in her bedroom. Pinky danced around her feet barking in the direction of the door. Isabella opened the door and, seeing that the hall was empty, proceeded down stairs.

Waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs was none other than Phineas. He was holding two gift wrapped boxes, grinning ear to ear. "Merry Christmas! Hope you didn't mind the scavenger hunt. Your mom helped me with everything. It was her idea to have me bring you back to your room, I was gonna use the tree house but this works just as well." Phineas didn't hide the joy behind is statement.

"Yea, writing Merry Christmas in the Beak suit was a pretty good touch too."

"Awesome! Ferb was able to come back for me! He's 'across the pond' for the holidays so I wasn't all that sure that he'd be able to make it."

Phineas stepped aside so that Isabella could continue down the stairs and followed her as she entered the kitchen. Sitting on the table was a rather large gift, carefully wrapped in Frosty the Snowman wrapping paper. She picked it up and turned to face Phineas. "So, is it time to exchange gifts?"

"Yes. Yes it is." Phineas laughed as he and Isabella exchanged presents.

Isabella was slow and deliberate in unwrapping her gifts from Phineas. One of them was in a small, slender box and the other one was clearly clothes of some sort. Unwrapping the clothing first revealed a fishnet like material that seemed to disappear when it made contact with her or her clothing. "Phineas? What is this?" She questioned.

"Oh, that? It's an invention of mine. It's a piece of smart cloth that regulates temperature so that you can deal with the harshest colds but still wear your favorite summer clothes. I know you don't like running in sweats so I figured you'd like that. And you can use for those days you want to wear a dress but not have to deal with the cold. It's not good looking on its own, so I made it so that it disappears when it senses body heat. But the good part is the second part of the gift."

Moving on to the long, slender box, Isabella half expected to see a stop watch for running, completely shocked when she saw what lay on the velvet interior. A thin white gold chain that led to a small white gold locket. The locket what heart shaped and had both Phineas and Isabella's initials on it. Opening it up revealed a photo of the two of them from when they were little kids on the left and a screen that currently showed the two of them opening gifts. "It's beautiful," Isabella gasped before putting it on.

"Yea, learning how to goldsmith took a little while but I'm glad with the final results. The screen is pretty unique too. It plays any memory of us that you have out in full detail."

Then it was Phineas's turn to open up his gift. Unlike Isabella's deliberate gift opening, her tore through the wrapping paper immediately getting to what was inside. The first thing he noticed was an emerald green sweater with a silver H embroidered on the front. Laughing at the reference to his favorite books, he put on the sweater immediately before moving on the to the next present. In front of was a thick, leather book with his name etched in gold on the sides. He picked it up and began to flipping through the pages. There were pictures of him and the gang in kindergarten as well as pictures from of Isabella and him in high school. He then bolted up and pulled Isabella in for a hug.

"Wow, this is amazing Isabella thank you!" He exclaimed before grabbing her by the hand and pulling her toward the living room.

"What are we doing Phineas?"

"Well, don't you wanna sit around and read this? You know reminisce about the old days."

"Oh, of course I would."

With that, the young couple sat down on the couch, remembering a time gone by.

**A/N: Wow it's been 7 months since I've updated this story. I hope it was worth the wait, but I'm not sure if it makes up for 7 months of waiting. While I can't say that it is as successful as my other two pieces, this one definitely stands out on its own. This is the official end to the Christmas time arc but it may continue with another holiday piece or if I get inspired. But for now, this seemed like a fitting end to the story. Another story in this universe will take place in a different season eventually. Hopefully soon and most likely it will take place in summer. It is so much easier to write a summer story for these characters. . . for obvious reasons. Well I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. ~200trackrunner**


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